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Curse of the Witch's Doll--My take on the movie with spoilers!

Nothing is sacred anymore. The toys we played with when we were children are no longer made only of plastic. Their painted faces that depict cuteness and innocence are now to be interpreted as masks that hide cruel and violent intentions.The dolls were supposed to be the first friend a girl has but contemporary movie makers have become keen to tarnish that little sense of companionship and security too.First, there was Chucky, then Annabelle and Robert the doll.Dolls are now officially creepy. Find one in your new home? Burn it right away.The Curse of the Witch's Doll can best be described as a movie made up of let's say, four acts.The first one is brief. A creepy doll is shown, a witch's hand upon it, cursing it. We hardly get a glimpse of the face as the woman is taken away presumably to be burned.Years later, during the war times, we are introduced to a mother and daughter walking down the woods to their new home.What happened to the father? The reason showed us ambiguous at this point.A man approaches them and he is apparently someone who has offered the hapless duo a large house to live in. All efforts to pay the rent are refused as the man offers them to live for free.At this point, our ingrained cynicism, courtesy of living in the modern world, should have kicked in. Obviously, nothing is free. What's the catch?The movie progresses and the daughter seems moody and takes a shine to a creepy doll. Seriously, no one in their right mind would keep the doll anywhere near them. It has bushy black hair, mean big eyes, a permanent growl. She is also dressed in a white dress.Anyone's first instinct would be to toss it into the garbage but if we've learned anything from modern horror movies, burn the damn dolls!Back to the movie, the daughter disappears, the mother is distressed, the man whose house it is, seems unperturbed and when the police are called, tells them not to bother looking.Days become a week and the mother still hasn't found her. However, in a not so surprising twist, the scene dissolves and the mother finds herself not facing the curse of the doll but her own insanity.Turns out, she had lost her daughter in treatment bombing and had lost her mind.She had been living in her delusions and the man was actually a doctor. He and his fellow doctor have been trying an unorthodox treatment where they let their patients live in their delusionary world and find closure with their problems.Adeline, the mother, is actually Mary, a woman whose letters talk about the doll and the curse.The doctor informs her of her mental state and Mary finally makes peace with her daughter who resides in her illusions.From here onward, the movie shifts to the doctor's perspective. He and his colleague are trying to help patients but at the same time, the main doctor seems to be hiding a secret. It doesn't make much sense. His colleague grows suspicious when he decides to send Mary for more treatment even when she's showing signs of improvement. What is it about the doll? What of the curse?No idea. The next thing we're shown is the doctor killing his colleague because he was getting closer to the truth. A truth that is never fully and clearly explained.Later, the doll comes to life and kills the doctor.75 years later, two new adults are keen on making a movie about an asylum where all patients and doctors had mysteriously died. Yup, it's the same cursed building.The two, presumably a couple, trespass the asylum and find a doll in the chest. The doll wastes no time in getting rid of them. She's been waiting years for new victims, unlike the other characters, she simply found these two vloggers, too annoying to play mind games with.The curse of the witch's doll is what exactly? The creepy doll was cursed to come to life and kill people? Was it haunted? Possessed by the witch? Why continue staying in that house?

None of these questions are answered.To be fair, the story wasn't actually boring and the proceedings, fortunately not painstakingly slow.The characters are interesting and bring in a sense of mystery.The fault lies in the inability to find a clear way to show the extent of the witch's revenge and her curse.The story would have worked better without the doll inserted just to provide confusion in the proceedings.

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